Moonlight and Roses

The year is 1934 and Albert, a singer, meets Dorothy, a pianist, because another pianist has broken his thumb. As children they had grown up during the First World War and had known the Depression, but they were young and life was full of music. They married in 1936 and their daughter, Barbara, was born in 1937. Life looked good but Albert was an Army reservist and was called up at the outbreak of the Second World War. His letters to Dorothy from France form the basis of this book. Fortunately, he survived Dunkirk and was posted to Stars in Battledress, entertaining the troops for the duration of the war.

The book shows the privations on the Home Front and the morale of the British people despite the dangers and hardships of war. Life was no easier after the war, but with the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and the New Look, colour came back into everyone's life. The Festival of Britain in 1951 was the icing on the cake. And with the National Health Service being created and new homes being built, the dark days were past and life could only get better.

The author, Barbara Kendall-Davies, was a professional singer from 1965 until 2012. She is also a prolific painter, having studied at the Birmingham College of Art after she left school. Her first job was in the Wardrobe Department of the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham. However, she always sang and she was encouraged to take lessons. She won first prize at her first competitive music festival and began to study seriously with a view to a professional career. In 1961, while working on the news staff of ATV Midlands, she won the Premier Soprano class and the Victory Shield at the Birmingham Music Festival and applied for a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She was successful, and during the first week, she met the baritone, Christopher Davies. They married in 1963 and later founded the Apollo Group of London. In 1995, Barbara was asked to write a monograph of the French 19th century singer, Pauline Viardot Garcia, and this led to her becoming a published writer in France and later in the UK. Her marriage to Chris lasted fifty-five years and their son, Giles Davies, followed them into the profession. She is now based in Jersey and devotes her time to writing. The sequel to Love and Music - Volume One entitled On with the Show will soon follow. Her debut novel, Truth Will Find a Way, was published by Austin Macauley in 2019.